To Leftists, the Personal is Political

Michael van der Galien was born in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden in 1984. For as long as he can remember, he has been obsessed with the United States. When he was 17 years old, he started blogging - of course about America. His articles have been published at Big Hollywood, Pajamas Media, Hot Air (the GreenRoom) and Right Across The Atlantic. He's also an editor for the Dutch conservative blog, De Dagelijkse Standaard.

A hallmark of the “new left” since the 1960s has been the degree to which personal choices — sexuality, procreation, titles, language — are subjected to political criteria. This seems to have carried into the 2010s with a bit of a new twist — therapists are encountering a growing number of couples with personal conflicts over differing degrees of their compliance with “green” environmentalism.

As simultaneously pathetic and hilarious as the idea of progressive marriages straining under the load of the debate over whether to invest in low-wattage hi-efficiency light bulbs, it does seem to indicate a very real and much broader dysfunction in the left. Not only are marriage strained, but many progressives find themselves incapable of even being casual friends with moderates or conservatives. In the political sphere, this dysfunction expresses itself as a constant drumbeat of alienation and demonization — since they are not friends with anyone who doesn’t share their political beliefs, it is a very short leap to believing that everyone who disagrees is not only flawed, but probably also an evil facist racist thug.